Formal and Informal Assessment of Student Learning
Name: Jamie Moscovitz
I. Assignment Description/Requirements
See Project Page for assignment details.
II. Preparation / Development
1. Reflect on your current assessment practices. How have you been determining what students understand and what they are able to do?
I like to use several different forms of assessment when looking at student performance. I have used the following practices at least two different times since I started in school, and found that they each had their benefits. Most informally, I assess my students understanding by asking directed questions and calling on students for answers. I will ask them for summaries or paraphrases of a section of notes, or to write down an interpretation of a complicated definition or concept. Next, I have worksheets or homework assignments that I have students completely essentially right after learning information so that I can see where their weaker understanding lies, and go back and address the topic for clarification. A further level of assessment would be when I give them note checking quizzes, quick 10 question quizzes, or pop quizzes to see where they stand with a particular section of material before moving on. Sometimes these are simply informative and do not count towards their grade. The second to highest level of formative assessment that I give students would be planned quizzes on smaller portions of material, usually halfway to a cumulative assessment. Finally, ultimate assessments of knowledge occur in the form of written assessments, lab reports/conclusions and projects. Students must demonstrate their mastery of a topic in this for of assessing, and show it in analytical writing, question answering and also the formation of their own questions.
2. Describe the concept(s) that you are trying to assess in these assignments. Include a link to the appropriate GSE(s) on RIScienceTeachers. Be sure to include in your description your definition, examples of what it is, why students have difficulty with this concept, and why it is important that you teach this topic
Formative Assessment: For the Chapter 11 and Chapter 14 genetics assessment, I am assessing the ability of students to understand how genes are passed down, how chromosomes are involved, how genes interact and how alterations in replication can cause genetic disorders.
Informal Assessment: For "Evaluating a Theory," Students will learn about the endosymbiotic theory. They will also apply their knowledge of the scientific term theory to this case study.
3. Describe an informal assessment that you selected, modified, or designed to address this concept. Summarize the instructions you gave your students and Include a link to the informal assessment here as well.
In this assessment, students will watch two, six minute video clips. One will discuss what a "Scientific Theory" is in comparison to the average definition of a theory, and its components. The second video will discuss the controversy of the Theory of Evolution, and how people integrate their understanding of religion and science. Next, students will receive a four page case study on endosymbiosis, and be asked to evaluate the theory on its completeness and evidence. Students have a set of 6 guidance questions to answer.
1. What observations were made to determine that eukaryotic cells first formed through endosymbiosis? In other words, what could they actually see?
2. What inferences were made? In other words, what predictions were made based on the observations?
3. What hypotheses, if any, were combined to form this theory?
4. What is the strongest aspect of the argument for this theory?
5. What is the weakest aspect of the argument for this theory? In other words, what does the case study fail to discuss?
6. Based on the answers to the previous questions, how complete of a theory do you think endosymbiosis is, as it relates to the formation of the first eukaryotic cell? Explain your reasoning.
4. Create a formal assessment. Describe this assessment, including concepts, types of items, and how it was assessed. Include a link to a copy of the assessment here as well.
This assessment covered material on the Work of Gregor Mendel, Probability, Punnett Squares, Mendelian Genetics, Linkage and Gene Maps, Human heredity, Human Chromosomes, and Genetic Disorders. It is a combination of multiple choice questions, completing the sentece, diagram analysis, short answers and one all encompassing essay. This assessment was out of 40 points, with values listed next to each question, or set of questions. Points were assigned based on difficulty of question, and within each question how well they conveyed their knowledge of the content. Each short answer and the essay had a few different topics they could discuss, and how well they were included and connected was assessed. This particular assessment was made to challenge the ability of the students to apply the definitions and concepts to particular situations, rather than assess their knowledge of definitions.
6. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your informal assessment or link it here. This description should include the assessment's features, how it addresses different depths of knowledge, as well as an explanation of how it addresses a scientific practice related to inquiry.
Questions 1 and 3 are DOK 2 because they have to collect and display data. Questions 2, 4, and 5 are DOK 3, where they have to form conclusions from the data that is present and missing. Finally, question 6 is DOK 4 because students must relate multiple content, from articles and video clips, and deduct the fundamental relationship. This is inquiry in the fact that they are presented with the novel concept of endosymbiosis, and instead of being told that it is a hardened theory, they were asked to be critical of the material and evaluate it for themselves. The final outcome of the practice is entirely up to their interpretation, as long as they support their responses with evidence Evaluating Endosymbiosis Key.pdf
9. For your informal assessment, upload scans of the work of three or four students. The work of each student should be on a different page. At the bottom of each students' page, you should describe the level of student understanding, e.g. high, average, or low, and describe how this is indicated in their answers. An example of how to do this is here. Note: Remember to name the pages you create carefully, e.g. "Smith S10 - High Performing" instead of "High-Performing."
10. For you formal assessment, describe how you think it addressed the concepts you were trying to assess? How did you modify the assessment to address learning differences or special needs?
This formal assessment addressed the concepts I was trying to assess in many ways. FIrstly, it incorporated aspects of every element of the chapters. In addition, it assessed these particular concepts with different levels of knowledge so not only was I able to tell if students understood that particular concept, but also to what extent. There were also questions, such as the short answers and essay, that required students to combine multiple concepts from chapters to determine overall ideas. There was a variety of the types of questions used to encompass multiple forms of student learning and understanding. For this accelerated class there are only two students with needs - and they did receive extra time to complete the test.
III. Analysis / Reflection
11. Use both the informal and formal assessments to describe what you learned about what your students understand about these concepts. Use specific examples from both the informal and formal assessment to illustrate your points. What can your students do now that they could not before, and what do they still need to learn?
Overall from the informal assessment my students got a better understanding of what a theory is scientifically, and what scientists as a community need to accept a theory. The secondary purpose of the case study was to teach students about endosymbiosis. With their question answers, and applying their knowledge in a unique format, I was able to see if students actually grasped the topic material, or were simply quoting. From the vocabulary that they used and the way in which they worded their sentences, I was able to see what they understood. For example, for question 5 they had to discuss what was missing, and that not only told me what they would still like to learn about the theory, but also what they did not understand.
From the formal assessment I learned a great deal about my students, specifically who truly understood the material and could demonstrate that through application and word problems, and who was still stuck on basic definitions. One thing I noticed that I revisited with students after the fact, was their understanding of meiosis. When discussing chromosomes, genes, and alleles students got very uncomfortable and started using awkward word choices. On my short answer questions, students had to visit gene linkage, crossing over, and independent assortment to correctly answer questions. Questions like this clearly set apart students with entirety in their knowledge and students that were "faking" their understanding. After this assessment, students could accurately answer questions about genetics, and understand all of the nuances of inheritance.
For the most part, I saw that students had issues tying together multiple tasks and concepts into one answer.
13. For your formal assessment only, select one student characteristic, e.g. ability, gender, age, etc) and compare the relative performance of each group. Hint: Use box and whiskers plots to compare the two groups. What do you conclude from this comparison? Why?
For the formal assessment - I compared overall performance of males versus females in the class. In the group their are 12 males and 8 females. The average points scored for males was 27.3/40, equivalent to around 68%. For the female students, the average points scored were higher at 31.2/40, about 77%. It was pretty clear overall that the female students in the class devoted much more time and diligence to studying for this exam which was much more application than vocabulary based. Interestingly, as far as the afterschool review held for the assessment, I had 6 male students attend. Half of the students that attended did fairly well, while the other half performed in the lower half of the class.
14. Describe any ways in which you involved students in self-assessment. How did you communicate what you learned from your informal and formal assessments to your students? What did they do with this information?
The best way that I can and do give students feedback is by personal comments on their tests, and explanations of why it is wrong or what more they needed. In addition, at the end of the test I usually write a holistic review of their work, to show them overall what was lacking. My dedication to this stems from my annoyance when my own teachers did not personalize feedback on exams and left me with many questions as to why answers were incorrect. From this information, when students receive this feedback, they can come discuss it with me, or if they want they can opt to get additional points by answering essay type, similar questions after school. Most frequently to make up points students are required to go back and review information, and then discuss with me after school to reprove their knowledge.
15. Most Important: Compare your objectives for student learning (both in terms of science concepts and practices) to the student learning you observed. What did you learn about your teaching based on the student performances? What will you do differently next time? Why would you make these changes? What, if anything, will you do to improve the assessment instruments?
I understood that no matter how clearly I state and restate material, from a powerpoint for example, students need at least some type of reinforcement, via interactive, worksheet, homework, review questions, etc. Students need at least some independent time with a topic to really internalize it and figure out what their level of understanding is. Ideas that are simply put out in words cannot be assumed to be understood because at the time there are no questions. Although this was only in a fewe instances with scattered definitions or examples, it was apparent on which questions a majority of students fumbled through. I would definitely make sure to reinforce all material next time that I plan on including on assessments to insure understanding.
Overall I think that I offer a variety of types of assessment, even within individual assessment I like including a variety of question types to meet with different students comforts and not exclude a particular type of questioning that they are confident about. What would be nice to include would be some type of interactive for each test, such as a lab that they completed during the unit of a lab skill they recently acquired. Most mid terms and finals are designed to include a lab practical, but if a particular student always shines in lab work, it would be nice to be able to include a variety of hands on questioning for them as well to show students that it is important as well as content. The most important thing about improving assessment instruments is to never save a copy of the file and then simply print it out each year. Even among different weeks of teaching where I covered material differently or added an important idea I was not sure I would be able to get to, I would go back to my test and edit it. Every year, every class will be different and assessments should be tweeked to reflect that.
Formal and Informal Assessment of Student Learning
Name: Jamie Moscovitz
I. Assignment Description/Requirements
II. Preparation / Development
1. Reflect on your current assessment practices. How have you been determining what students understand and what they are able to do?
I like to use several different forms of assessment when looking at student performance. I have used the following practices at least two different times since I started in school, and found that they each had their benefits. Most informally, I assess my students understanding by asking directed questions and calling on students for answers. I will ask them for summaries or paraphrases of a section of notes, or to write down an interpretation of a complicated definition or concept. Next, I have worksheets or homework assignments that I have students completely essentially right after learning information so that I can see where their weaker understanding lies, and go back and address the topic for clarification. A further level of assessment would be when I give them note checking quizzes, quick 10 question quizzes, or pop quizzes to see where they stand with a particular section of material before moving on. Sometimes these are simply informative and do not count towards their grade. The second to highest level of formative assessment that I give students would be planned quizzes on smaller portions of material, usually halfway to a cumulative assessment. Finally, ultimate assessments of knowledge occur in the form of written assessments, lab reports/conclusions and projects. Students must demonstrate their mastery of a topic in this for of assessing, and show it in analytical writing, question answering and also the formation of their own questions.
2. Describe the concept(s) that you are trying to assess in these assignments. Include a link to the appropriate GSE(s) on RIScienceTeachers. Be sure to include in your description your definition, examples of what it is, why students have difficulty with this concept, and why it is important that you teach this topic
Formative Assessment: For the Chapter 11 and Chapter 14 genetics assessment, I am assessing the ability of students to understand how genes are passed down, how chromosomes are involved, how genes interact and how alterations in replication can cause genetic disorders.
Informal Assessment: For "Evaluating a Theory," Students will learn about the endosymbiotic theory. They will also apply their knowledge of the scientific term theory to this case study.
3. Describe an informal assessment that you selected, modified, or designed to address this concept. Summarize the instructions you gave your students and Include a link to the informal assessment here as well.
In this assessment, students will watch two, six minute video clips. One will discuss what a "Scientific Theory" is in comparison to the average definition of a theory, and its components. The second video will discuss the controversy of the Theory of Evolution, and how people integrate their understanding of religion and science. Next, students will receive a four page case study on endosymbiosis, and be asked to evaluate the theory on its completeness and evidence. Students have a set of 6 guidance questions to answer.
1. What observations were made to determine that eukaryotic cells first formed through endosymbiosis? In other words, what could they actually see?
2. What inferences were made? In other words, what predictions were made based on the observations?
3. What hypotheses, if any, were combined to form this theory?
4. What is the strongest aspect of the argument for this theory?
5. What is the weakest aspect of the argument for this theory? In other words, what does the case study fail to discuss?
6. Based on the answers to the previous questions, how complete of a theory do you think endosymbiosis is, as it relates to the formation of the first eukaryotic cell? Explain your reasoning.
Evaluating Endosymbiosis.pdf
4. Create a formal assessment. Describe this assessment, including concepts, types of items, and how it was assessed. Include a link to a copy of the assessment here as well.
This assessment covered material on the Work of Gregor Mendel, Probability, Punnett Squares, Mendelian Genetics, Linkage and Gene Maps, Human heredity, Human Chromosomes, and Genetic Disorders. It is a combination of multiple choice questions, completing the sentece, diagram analysis, short answers and one all encompassing essay. This assessment was out of 40 points, with values listed next to each question, or set of questions. Points were assigned based on difficulty of question, and within each question how well they conveyed their knowledge of the content. Each short answer and the essay had a few different topics they could discuss, and how well they were included and connected was assessed. This particular assessment was made to challenge the ability of the students to apply the definitions and concepts to particular situations, rather than assess their knowledge of definitions.
Genetics ch 11 and 14 Assessment.pdf
5. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your formal assessment or link it here.
Genetics ch 11 and 14 Assessment Key.pdf
6. Develop the evaluation criteria (or key) for your informal assessment or link it here. This description should include the assessment's features, how it addresses different depths of knowledge, as well as an explanation of how it addresses a scientific practice related to inquiry.
Questions 1 and 3 are DOK 2 because they have to collect and display data. Questions 2, 4, and 5 are DOK 3, where they have to form conclusions from the data that is present and missing. Finally, question 6 is DOK 4 because students must relate multiple content, from articles and video clips, and deduct the fundamental relationship. This is inquiry in the fact that they are presented with the novel concept of endosymbiosis, and instead of being told that it is a hardened theory, they were asked to be critical of the material and evaluate it for themselves. The final outcome of the practice is entirely up to their interpretation, as long as they support their responses with evidence
Evaluating Endosymbiosis Key.pdf
9. For your informal assessment, upload scans of the work of three or four students. The work of each student should be on a different page. At the bottom of each students' page, you should describe the level of student understanding, e.g. high, average, or low, and describe how this is indicated in their answers. An example of how to do this is here. Note: Remember to name the pages you create carefully, e.g. "Smith S10 - High Performing" instead of "High-Performing."
Student Work
Low PerformingAbove Average Performing
Superior Performing
10. For you formal assessment, describe how you think it addressed the concepts you were trying to assess? How did you modify the assessment to address learning differences or special needs?
This formal assessment addressed the concepts I was trying to assess in many ways. FIrstly, it incorporated aspects of every element of the chapters. In addition, it assessed these particular concepts with different levels of knowledge so not only was I able to tell if students understood that particular concept, but also to what extent. There were also questions, such as the short answers and essay, that required students to combine multiple concepts from chapters to determine overall ideas. There was a variety of the types of questions used to encompass multiple forms of student learning and understanding. For this accelerated class there are only two students with needs - and they did receive extra time to complete the test.
III. Analysis / Reflection
11. Use both the informal and formal assessments to describe what you learned about what your students understand about these concepts. Use specific examples from both the informal and formal assessment to illustrate your points. What can your students do now that they could not before, and what do they still need to learn?
Overall from the informal assessment my students got a better understanding of what a theory is scientifically, and what scientists as a community need to accept a theory. The secondary purpose of the case study was to teach students about endosymbiosis. With their question answers, and applying their knowledge in a unique format, I was able to see if students actually grasped the topic material, or were simply quoting. From the vocabulary that they used and the way in which they worded their sentences, I was able to see what they understood. For example, for question 5 they had to discuss what was missing, and that not only told me what they would still like to learn about the theory, but also what they did not understand.
From the formal assessment I learned a great deal about my students, specifically who truly understood the material and could demonstrate that through application and word problems, and who was still stuck on basic definitions. One thing I noticed that I revisited with students after the fact, was their understanding of meiosis. When discussing chromosomes, genes, and alleles students got very uncomfortable and started using awkward word choices. On my short answer questions, students had to visit gene linkage, crossing over, and independent assortment to correctly answer questions. Questions like this clearly set apart students with entirety in their knowledge and students that were "faking" their understanding. After this assessment, students could accurately answer questions about genetics, and understand all of the nuances of inheritance.
For the most part, I saw that students had issues tying together multiple tasks and concepts into one answer.
13. For your formal assessment only, select one student characteristic, e.g. ability, gender, age, etc) and compare the relative performance of each group. Hint: Use box and whiskers plots to compare the two groups. What do you conclude from this comparison? Why?
For the formal assessment - I compared overall performance of males versus females in the class. In the group their are 12 males and 8 females. The average points scored for males was 27.3/40, equivalent to around 68%. For the female students, the average points scored were higher at 31.2/40, about 77%. It was pretty clear overall that the female students in the class devoted much more time and diligence to studying for this exam which was much more application than vocabulary based. Interestingly, as far as the afterschool review held for the assessment, I had 6 male students attend. Half of the students that attended did fairly well, while the other half performed in the lower half of the class.
14. Describe any ways in which you involved students in self-assessment. How did you communicate what you learned from your informal and formal assessments to your students? What did they do with this information?
The best way that I can and do give students feedback is by personal comments on their tests, and explanations of why it is wrong or what more they needed. In addition, at the end of the test I usually write a holistic review of their work, to show them overall what was lacking. My dedication to this stems from my annoyance when my own teachers did not personalize feedback on exams and left me with many questions as to why answers were incorrect. From this information, when students receive this feedback, they can come discuss it with me, or if they want they can opt to get additional points by answering essay type, similar questions after school. Most frequently to make up points students are required to go back and review information, and then discuss with me after school to reprove their knowledge.
15. Most Important: Compare your objectives for student learning (both in terms of science concepts and practices) to the student learning you observed. What did you learn about your teaching based on the student performances? What will you do differently next time? Why would you make these changes? What, if anything, will you do to improve the assessment instruments?
I understood that no matter how clearly I state and restate material, from a powerpoint for example, students need at least some type of reinforcement, via interactive, worksheet, homework, review questions, etc. Students need at least some independent time with a topic to really internalize it and figure out what their level of understanding is. Ideas that are simply put out in words cannot be assumed to be understood because at the time there are no questions. Although this was only in a fewe instances with scattered definitions or examples, it was apparent on which questions a majority of students fumbled through. I would definitely make sure to reinforce all material next time that I plan on including on assessments to insure understanding.
Overall I think that I offer a variety of types of assessment, even within individual assessment I like including a variety of question types to meet with different students comforts and not exclude a particular type of questioning that they are confident about. What would be nice to include would be some type of interactive for each test, such as a lab that they completed during the unit of a lab skill they recently acquired. Most mid terms and finals are designed to include a lab practical, but if a particular student always shines in lab work, it would be nice to be able to include a variety of hands on questioning for them as well to show students that it is important as well as content. The most important thing about improving assessment instruments is to never save a copy of the file and then simply print it out each year. Even among different weeks of teaching where I covered material differently or added an important idea I was not sure I would be able to get to, I would go back to my test and edit it. Every year, every class will be different and assessments should be tweeked to reflect that.